Doctor, Is That You?
by TimeLordPrime
Summary: This is a new story set in the universe of War of The Guardians. Rose Tyler, Time Lady Extraordinaire, gets herself involved in a fight between the Sontarans and UNIT; and meets an angry and confused Ace whose just been mysteriously stranded in time and space by The Doctor. Oh, and everyone is convinced for some reason that she is actually The Doctor! Just a typical day for Rose!
1. Chapter 1

Doctor, Is That You?

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

**For Rose, this story takes place shortly after the end of my story, War Of The Guardians. I will avoid putting any spoilers to the end of that story in this one. For Ace, the events of this story occur right after Survival, the final story of the original show.**

**Note: Ace calls The Doctor The Professor or just Professor most of the time. It's her own personal name for him.**

CHAPTER 1

Ace was lost. Extremely lost! It wasn't just that she didn't know where she was, but that she also didn't know _when_ she was.

She had just gotten out of the TARDIS when it suddenly took off, leaving her lost and alone in the middle of nowhere. She knew that The Professor would never just abandon her so she instantly knew that something must be wrong and that worried her even more.

She could see that she was in some kind of small town and it looked English, but she wasn't sure. She had yet to come across a single person or even a sign after having walked through the town for ten minutes. So there were no clues to be found there.

She continued to walk aimlessly through the town until she stopped when she began to hear several loud explosions up ahead. That sounded like music to her ears! She loved to watch things explode. She wondered what kind of explosives were being used. Was it C-4? She loved C-4. It wasn't as good as her home made Nitro-9 in aerosol cans, but it was still pretty brill.

She began to walk closer to the sounds and straight in the face of her common sense. She soon saw a large group of soldiers that wore what she recognized as UNIT uniforms up ahead of her. They were the ones that were setting up the explosions. They were testing them on selected targets throughout the town she noticed. She then realized that this whole town was fake and had just been created as a testing area for UNIT's combat drills.

That meant that at least she was somewhere in the 20th or 21st centuries she thought, trying to narrow her location down. She had met UNIT troops before during one of her adventures with The Doctor. They were an organization dedicated to investigating and dealing with alien threats to the Earth. The Doctor used to work for them as a Scientific Advisor back in either the 70's or the 80's. Even The Doctor wasn't sure when it was exactly it seemed like to her.

At least she had a plan to rescue herself now. She would talk to the UNIT soldiers and maybe they could help her find her back to The Professor.

Just as she was about to call out to them, she heard that familiar wheezing groaning sound as the TARDIS materialized a few feet to the side of her.

"Well, it's about time!" She said out loud.

She ran over to the oh so welcome blue box and began to talk as soon as she saw the doors start to open.

"Where have you been? What happened? What's the idea of leaving me stranded here in the middle of a UNIT testing ground? Was that supposed to be funny? It wasn't to me! Do I look like I'm laughing?" Ace started to belt out questions before anyone even emerged from inside.

She was shocked when she heard a female voice answer back from inside the TARDIS.

"No, you certainly don't. You look worried and upset. Let me guess. He left stranded you here. You don't know where or even when you are, do you?" a kind voice asked.

A second later, she saw a beautiful blonde woman walk out of the TARDIS dressed all in pink. Ace looked at her in shock, and the blonde gave her a soft, reassuring smile.

"Who are you? Where's The Professor? What have you done to him? If you've hurt him, I'll rip –" Ace started yelling at her.

Rose swiftly started to attempt to calm her down.

"Hang on a minute! I haven't done anything to The Doctor if that's who you mean. I've just borrowed the TARDIS for a little trip. I like to travel by myself sometimes. It helps me relax to just pop in for a quick little visit somewhere after a stressful day. It's kind of like what taking a nice quiet walk does for some people. My name is Rose, by the way. Rose Tyler," the blonde said with a sweet smile.

"The Professor doesn't give the TARDIS to anyone. You're lying. Where is he? I want to see him right now!" Ace yelled.

She ran inside the still open TARDIS doors and stared in shock at the interior. It looked completely different from the TARDIS that she was used to seeing!

Rose went inside with her and continued to be as nice as she could. She knew that this girl was upset and confused, and it wouldn't do anything but make things worse if she lost her temper.

"This isn't the Professor's TARDIS," Ace said.

"It is actually. Just not your Doctor's TARDIS. Which one are you traveling with? What does he look like? Is he a Scottish bloke with a question mark covered sweater?" Rose asked her curiously.

Ace looked at her with a strange look as she studied her in an attempt to figure her out.

"Yeah. That's him. Is he okay?" Ace asked her.

"He should be. Tell you what though. I'll help you find him and we'll make sure together, okay?" Rose said.

Ace nodded. She didn't know why, but she felt as if she could trust this woman. She felt that same sense of trust and protection that she had always had around The Professor. You just felt safe around him, and she had felt the same way ever since Rose had appeared.

Rose looked at her black leather jacket with the many different badges on it, and knew who she must be from the Doctor's description of her in his many stories of his past adventures.

"You're Ace, right?" Rose said .

"How do you know that?" Ace asked suspicious.

"The Doctor told me about you. He's told me about all of his companions. I recognize you from his descriptions of you. I finally know where I am in relation to you. I'm from your Doctor's future," Rose explained.

"So you're his companion?" Ace asked.

"I used to be. That was when I was human," Rose said with a sly smile. She couldn't help but have a little fun with Ace about her identity.

"What are you now?" Ace asked, not in the least fazed by this. She had seen a lot of weird things in her travels with the Doctor.

Rose looked at Ace for a minute and seemed to come to a conclusion about her.

"Do you have any connection with Fenric? I can sense his presence on you. It's just barely there, but I can feel it. I can see him tangled up in your timeline," Rose said as her face became enigmatic for a moment; then she returned back to her normal nice, cheerful persona.

Ace knew what she was now without her having to tell her.

"You're a Time Lord," Ace stated.

"Yep! I'd rather be called a Time Lady though. You see I was always a Time Lady, but then I became human and forgot who I was. Now, I'm back to my real self. It's a long story," Rose said.

"I'm sure it is, but I would rather find out what happened to The Professor instead of hearing about your whole life story," Ace said impatiently.

Ace was getting more worried by the minute, and she had no time to waste with this nonsense.

Rose could see that Ace was getting more worried, so she stopped playing around with her.

"We'll find him Ace. I promise!" Rose said with a serious expression.

Ace gave her a small nervous smile and nodded.

"Tell me what happened to him?" Rose asked.

"I don't know. The TARDIS had just materialized, and I got out first. Then before I could even turn around, it dematerialized and left me stranded here. Do you know where here is?" Ace asked.

Rose sniffed the air as she tried to determine the time and place with her time sense. She loved being able to do this again!

"I'd say that it's just a few miles outside of London, and the year is 2012. Wait. Maybe 2013?" Rose said with a grin.

She sniffed the air again.

"Yeah, definitely 2013! Sorry! I'm a little rusty at this. I was human for the last 20 years or so, so I'm going to have to get used to this again," Rose said as she giggled. She was well aware of how silly she was sounding, and she enjoyed every moment of it.

Ace laughed at her as she said, "You definitely know The Professor! You're just as crazy as he is!"

Rose pretended to be offended as she gave her a mock pouting look.

"I resent that remark, miss! You have offended my delicate sensibilities! I may just cry!" Rose struggled to say while barely being able to keep from bursting out laughing.

As Ace started chuckling away at this display, Rose smiled in satisfaction. She seemed to have finally calmed the girl down which was what she had been trying to do since they had first met.

It would be much easier to help her get back to The Doctor if she stopped trying to fight with her every minute.

It was just then that they both whirled around in shock and sudden terror as a whole battalion of Sontaran soldiers teleported behind them from out of nowhere!

"You will surrender right now, Doctor! If you decide to resist, we will kill your companion!" The Sontaran in the front shouted as he looked at Rose!

Rose was completely taken by surprise at being addressed as The Doctor! Ace was looking at her in utter disbelief as if she was actually wondering whether she really were The Doctor or not.

"Wait a minute here! There's been some kind of mistake! I'm not The Doctor!" Rose protested.

"You arrived in The Doctor's TARDIS, and you are a Time Lord. Who else could you be? It is well known that no one but The Doctor ever pilots the TARDIS. Therefore, you are The Doctor!" The head Sontaran said with a unbelieving smirk.

"Such wonderful logic!" Rose muttered to herself.

She could hear a voice yell at them and turned to see UNIT soldiers coming up on the other side of the two of them and the Sontarans.

"I am Colonel Mace, and you will all lay down your weapons now and surrender to me in the name of the Unified Intelligence Taskforce!" said the voice.

Suddenly, Colonel Mace seemed to notice the TARDIS and looked at Rose in confusion.

"Doctor, is that you?!" He asked her.

Rose sighed and smacked herself in the forehead.

She had just wanted a nice relaxing little side trip! Was that too much to ask?

**Next: Rose is stuck between a rock and a hard place as she has to keep the Sontarans and UNIT from slaughtering each other. Oh, and everyone believes that she's The Doctor too and won't listen to her when she tells them otherwise! All in all just a normal day for our favorite Time Lady!**


	2. Chapter 2

CHAPTER 2

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

**For Rose, this story takes place shortly after the end of my story, War Of The Guardians. I will avoid putting any spoilers to the end of that story in this one. For Ace, the events of this story occur right after Survival, the final story of the original show.**

"Listen, people, I am not the Doctor!" Rose said as her patience started to wear out.

Ace believed her. She had known the Doctor for years. She knew that there was no way that this woman could be him.

Everyone else though thought differently.

"Why do you keep denying it, Doctor? There is only one Time Lord left alive and it's you. Your life signs show that you're a Time Lord," Colonel Mace said as he pulled out an alien scanning device that UNIT had adapted for its use.

"The human has a point. You cannot deny who you are now, Doctor," The leader of the Sontarans said.

"There are other Time Lords now, and I am one of them. I am not the Doctor!" Rose persisted.

The Sontaran continued to look at her, and then his expression changed as he started to doubt himself.

"If you are not the Doctor, then we have no reason to fear you. An anonymous alien female holds no fear for us. The Doctor was the only thing keeping us from killing these pathetic excuses for soldiers. Very well then, destroy them!" The Sontaran leader shouted to his men.

Rose knew that she had to act quickly. She pulled out her sonic screwdriver and pointed it at the guns of the Sontarans. All of the guns that had been pulled instantly caught fire and refused to function!

The Sontaran leader looked at her with a smirk now! He was convinced that he had been right all along.

"At last, you show yourself, Doctor! I knew that if I attacked your precious humans that you would defend them! Now, surrender to us, or we will kill your companion. We want there to be no interference from you in our conquest of this planet," The alien leader said.

Rose decided that she needed to give up trying to fight their misconception. She couldn't use her powers here because she wasn't allowed to interfere in the affairs of others. She couldn't fight them as herself because these blokes had obviously never heard of her and were not impressed. She was going to have to change that someday. She had to pretend to be their worst foe though for now and somehow use that against them.

"All right! You've got me! I am The Doctor! I've regenerated again, and this time I decided that I'd like to be a girl. I mean, why not? I look pretty too good too, don't you think?" Rose said as she tried to act as vain as the Doctor.

"Your outward appearance is irrelevant to us. We are not influenced by such things, Doctor!" The Sontaran leader said with a look of disgust.

"No, no. Of course not to you but appearances matter a great deal to other beings. They judge you based on how you look, fairly or unfairly," Rose said as she hoped that she was getting the Doctor's speech patterns right.

"Appearance do not matter. All that matters is the strength of the inner warrior. An ability to win battles is what matters to us," The Sontaran leader said.

Rose actually looked surprised at this reaction.

"It looks like you and I agree on more than you thought. We actually agree with each other to a point," Rose said.

The Sontaran leader looked at her with skepticism.

"I mean that we agree about the whole what matters is on the inside thing. Not the whole inner warrior, winning battles, and generally pretty much fighting the most useless war in all of history stuff. I mean, really, don't you ever stop and think,"Hm! If we haven't won in this long, maybe we're not going to!" It's common sense! That reminds me of meeting Thomas Paine! He wrote Common Sense, you know. Oh, he was a wonderful chap! He and I once had this remarkable adventure in France. We stopped a Sycorax invasion with a kettle and a bag of string. Really! I mean it. It actually worked!" Rose babbled and stopped with a huge grin. She was loving this.

The Sontaran leader, however, was definitely not.

"Silence! You will come with us now, or we will kill the girl!" he shouted.

"All right! All right! No need to get all loud and shouty! When are you lot going to stop being so rude? I'm one to talk though. I'm often very rude. I'm still rude and not ginger!" Rose babbled some more.

The Sontarans pointed their guns at Ace, and Rose immediately relented.

"Fine! Come along, McShane!" Rose said as she gestured for Ace to go with the Sontarans.

Ace just looked at her like she had totally gone bonkers. That wasn't the Doctor that she knew. She was doing a terrible job of imitating him in her opinion; but the Sontarans seemed to be swallowing it hook, line, and sinker.

That's because I'm not impersonating your Doctor. I'm impersonating mine. He's the one that these blokes all know, both UNIT and the Sontarans. A voice said in Ace's head that she instantly knew must be Rose.

Ace didn't like her thoughts being invaded and said so back to Rose in her own head.

Sorry! I just wanted you to know what was going on. I don't usually send my thoughts to anyone without permission. This time though it seems to be necessary. Your expression is going to give me away. Just play along, Ace! Rose thought to her.

Ace just nodded and agreed to go along with her little act if it seemed to be working.

"You will meet with the representatives of Earth, and tell them that they must surrender within twenty four hours; or we will take your planet by force. Make sure and tell them that we have the Doctor as well," The Sontaran leader said to Colonel Mace.

Then, all of the Sontarans vanished as they, along with Rose and Ace, transmatted back to their command ship up in orbit above Earth.

Rose frowned at their leaving before fighting.

"Is that some new tactic for you lot? You usually go in all guns blazing! Are you some group of pacifist Sontarans that I've just never heard of?" Rose asked.

"Our actions do not concern you, Doctor," The Sontaran leader said with no change of expression on his face.

"Oh! I think that they do though! Sontarans not fighting?! There's something very wrong with that. Why wouldn't you fight though, eh? It must be because there's something that you want on the Earth down below. Something that you realize might be damaged in a battle. Something too precious to put at risk, is that it? It's a thing. A great, big thing of ultimate doom and destruction! Oh, I love great, big things of ultimate doom and destruction! Tell me I'm right! Am I right? I bet I am!" Rose said, talking like she was totally mad.

Ace looked at her like she was, and began to wonder if she was crazy for listening to her.

"Take them away!" The Sontaran leader shouted.

As they were led to a prison cell, Rose smiled. She knew that she must have hit the nail on the head. What were they after though? That was the question. She had to get herself and Ace out of this cell and back onto Earth to find out.

As soon as they were alone, Ace began pulling aerosol cans full of her homemade Nitro-9 explosive out of her jacket.

Rose looked at her with widened eyes and sheer disbelief.

"You're walking around with explosives in your jacket, and you look at me like I'm crazy!" Rose said with a raised eyebrow.

"Hey! I know what I'm doing, okay? I don't think that you have a clue what you're doing!" Ace said with a frown.

"I do too! I've just gotten valuable information out of them. They're looking for something down below. It's something that we have to get out of here and find before they do," Rose said.

"I thought you'd never ask!" Ace said as she grinned evilly.

She put the cans of Nitro-9 on the outside of the door, and then moved a bed in the cell over her and Rose for protection. They were on a timer now and were slowly counting down to their detonation.

"Do you know what you're doing? You're going to get us killed!" Rose said in fear.

"Relax! I've been handling explosives my whole life! I'm an expert. They'll be going off now in 5…4…3 – " Ace was instantly cut off by a huge explosion that blew open the door and set alarms off all over the ship.

"I may be a just a little bit off on the timer, though," Ace side with a shrug.

Rose just glared at her.

"I see why he likes you now. You both love to blow things up! I should tell you about how he blew up my job once!" Rose said with a wicked smile.

Ace looked at her in fake shock.

"Really! Mister "Don't Carry Nitro-9 except when I ask you to without actually asking you to" loves to blow things up?! I'm shocked!" Ace said with a grin.

The two girls then walked out of the cell, still laughing and talking, as they evaded the Sontaran patrols and made their way to the transmat.

**Next: Rose and Ace start to unravel just what is actually going here. What do the Sontarans actually want?**


	3. Chapter 3

CHAPTER 3

I do not own Doctor Who, and I am not making any profit off of this.

Rose and Ace managed to reach the Transmat without any trouble and used it to get back to Earth. They landed right where they had been before near the TARDIS and caused several UNIT soldiers to look at them in shock as they appeared out of thin air.

"What's the matter? You don't see people transmatting down to Earth after escaping Sontarans on a daily basis? You blokes need to get out more and live a little!" Rose joked.

Colonel Mace came running up to her and said, "Good, Doctor! You've escaped. Can you tell us anything about what is going on here?"

Rose thought about telling him for the hundredth time that she wasn't the Doctor, but she decided that she didn't want to go through that particular headache again. Maybe she could clear things up afterward. If not, she would have a good story to tell the Doctor later anyway. She would love seeing the expression on his face when she told him that people thought that she was him!

"Maybe, I can. Tell me, Colonel, has UNIT recently heard anything about an alien artifact having been discovered around here recently? I believe that the Sontarans are after something in this area," Rose said.

The Colonel hesitated a moment, and Rose knew that she had hit paydirt.

"There may be an object that crash landed nearby a few days ago," Colonel Mace said noncommittally.

"I knew it! Can I see it? I bet it's something weird and mysterious. I love weird and mysterious," Rose said as she went back to her Doctor impression again.

The Colonel looked at her like she was insane so she decided that she must be doing a good job in her imitation. People looked at the Doctor like that all the time including her.

It's being kept on the UNIT base next to this area. I'll have some men take you there," The Colonel said as he gestured at two of his men and gave them orders.

Rose and Ace soon found themselves in the warehouse where this mysterious object was being kept.

As they walked up to the crate containing it, one of the soldiers with her said, "Be careful when you open the box. Some of the others guarding it have reported strange occurrences surrounding the object within it. They've claimed that it spoke to them! They think that it's alive if you believe that," the soldier said, sounding like he was half convinced of it himself and was trying to talk himself out of it.

"Oh! A living, talking mysterious and potentially deadly object from space! That's even better!" Rose shouted.

The soldier looked at her funny, and then nodded at her as he walked away.

Ace shook her head at her.

"You have got to stop the crazy routine. Everyone thinks we're bonkers," she said with a frown.

"That's the way he acts in the future. That's what these people expect," Rose protested.

"Whatever," Ace said rolling her eyes.

Rose opened the top of the box and looked inside of it to see a statue of a woman holding a bow and arrow. The statue looked like it was made out of silver metal. It looked almost robotic.

Ace recognized it instantly.

"That's the Nemesis. The Doctor and I met her before. She was made out of some living metal named validium, and she seemed to be working for him. He ordered her to blow up a Cyber Fleet that was threatening the Earth. She kept saying something about having had many names and forms, and that she wanted the Doctor to give her back her freedom," Ace explained.

Rose nodded. She didn't know the name that Ace called her or the current form, but she recognized her by the energy signature that the statue gave off that Rose picked up with her Time Lady senses. The statue was an ancient weapon of the Time Lords. She was capable of great destruction, and she would reform when she was destroyed so that she was indestructible. Whoever had the statue's bow could give her orders, and she couldn't refuse them. No wonder the Sontarans wanted her!

"You recognize her?" Ace asked, having seen the look on her face.

"Yeah. She's an old Time Lord weapon. Why on Earth would he use her for? I never liked them using her. What they did to her always bothered me. I thought that she should have been given her freedom, but no one listened to me. I was a renegade after all," Rose said.

"Hello, Ace!" Nemesis said in an eerie voice. The soldiers nearby tensed up and aimed their guns at the statue.

"It's alright. She won't do anything to you as long as no one holds the bow. She can't act on her own," Rose assured them.

The soldiers relaxed a little at that, but they still didn't take their eyes or their guns off of the statue for a second.

"Hello!" Ace called back to the Nemesis statue.

The statue seemed to study Rose for a moment as if confused; and then finally she said, "Arkytior? I was told that you had died."

Rose shook her head as she said, "Well, reports of my death were greatly exaggerated luckily for me. What are you doing here?"

"I am here entirely by chance. I reformed after destroying the Cyber Fleet, and I went into orbit around the Earth. Having received no orders, I just stayed there until I was pulled down to the planet a few days ago naturally. I have been here ever since then after I was discovered by UNIT," Nemesis explained.

"The Sontarans want to capture you to do who knows what. Probably more mindless attacks on the Rutans again. I can't let them have you. You have to leave here and go back into orbit," Rose said.

The soldiers stared at Rose in amazement as she conversed with the statue as if it was a normal everyday thing. To her of course, it was normal more or less.

Rose took the bow out of her hand, and the statue stood up out of the box. The soldiers tensed up again.

"It's fine. She's under my control. I have the bow," Rose told them as she held out the bow for them to see.

They still seemed unconvinced and just kept staring at Nemesis with alert eyes.

"I want you to go back into orbit," Rose commanded her.

"You'll have to identify yourself first," the statue said with a tone of arrogance in her voice. She was having fun with her.

"What?" Rose asked annoyed.

"You will have to give me your name so that I can be sure of your identity. How do I know you are who you say you are?" The statue smirked.

"Wait a minute! You just said five minutes ago that you recognized her!" Ace protested.

"That doesn't mean that she is for sure who I think that she is. Identify yourself and then give the order," Nemesis said playfully.

"She's being hard to deal with on purpose. She loves to argue with people because she hates being imprisoned," Rose said with a sigh. Rose thought about freeing her, but she was unsure of what the statue might do with her newfound freedom. She decided to wait and ask her Doctor about that later.

"She's being a jerk. That's what she's being," Ace commented.

Rose sighed and walked up closer to the statue with the bow in her hand. She knew what Nemesis wanted her to say and hated it. She had always hated being all formal and pompous.

"I am the Lady Arkytior, Matriarch of the House of Lungbarrow, and I command you to leave this planet and go back into orbit with all of the authority given to me by the High Council of the Time Lords of Gallifrey," Rose said with a regal air in her voice.

Then, she coughed and gagged.

"I hate being all formal. It just isn't me," Rose said with a grimace.

"I noticed that it's all about pomp and circumstances with you lot," Ace said with a grin.

"Yes. I hate all of that too. I've always been casual and easygoing. I think of everyone as an equal. That's why they called me a renegade because I actually thought for myself. That and I always got into trouble all of the time," Rose said with a wide smile at that last sentence.

"You were a bit of a troublemaker then?" Ace asked with a wicked grin.

"Yes. I still am actually. I just can't help it," Rose said laughing.

Ace snickered. She had only known Rose for a short time, but she already liked the other woman a lot. She could see why the Doctor would like her too. She wondered what exactly their relationship was to each other. She resolved to ask her about it later when they hopefully found the Doctor.

The Nemesis Statue now proceeded to activate the rockets on the rocket-sled that she had been traveling in as she laid back down inside of it, and Rose handed her back the bow.

In moments the statue headed off into orbit, and Rose sighed in relief.

"Well, at least we don't have to worry about that anymore," Rose said as the soldiers with her radioed in to Colonel Mace and told him what had just happened.

One of the soldiers frowned though when he received a transmission back from The Colonel that Rose couldn't understand from where she was standing.

"What did he say?" Rose asked.

"He said that the statue has just been knocked out of the sky by a Sontaran blast. It is falling back to Earth, and the Sontarans have a small ship following it down, ma'am," the soldier said.

Rose groaned as she and Ace started off back to the TARDIS. They would have to use it to get to the Nemesis before the Sontarans did. Why was nothing ever easy? She quickly grinned though. Of course, where would be the fun in life if everything was easy?

Ace just looked at her with another roll of her eyes.

"You get off on it, don't you? You love the danger just like him," Ace said with a small knowing smile.

Rose nodded with enthusiasm.

"I can't help it. It makes me feel alive. I don't want anyone to get hurt or anything like that, but the thrill of a good adventure is like nothing else. It just makes me excited," Rose said with a huge wide grin.

"Are you two related or something?" Ace asked curious.

"Something like that," Rose said enigmatically. She couldn't be giving away details about the future after all.

"Now you're doing the dark and mysterious thing too. You're just like him in every way," Ace said.

"Thanks!" Rose grinned.

"That wasn't a compliment," Ace said with a sigh as they finally reached the TARDIS.

They entered and quickly took off for the coordinates that the soldiers had given her for the estimated arrival point of the statue.

**Next: Rose and Ace must work quickly to keep the statue away from the Sontarans before they get ahold of one of the deadliest weapons in the universe. It won't be easy either especially when yet another old enemy of the Doctor's comes forth to claim the Nemesis.**


	4. Chapter 4

CHAPTER 4

I don't own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

The TARDIS materialized just as the Nemesis hit the ground hard. The shockwave of the statue's impact threw Rose and Ace around inside the TARDIS like rag dolls.

Rose quickly picked herself up. Time Ladies were made of stern stuff, and she was glad of it.

She saw Ace lying on the floor of the console and began to panic. She raced over to her and began to check her vital signs. She breathed a sigh of relief as she realized that Ace had just been knocked out. Just in case, she used Bad Wolf to check on her more thoroughly. Her eyes glowed for a minute as she looked inside of her and checked every part of her. Luckily, she found no concussion or internal injuries.

Just as Rose finished her inspection, Ace woke up and looked at her in shock. Rose wondered why when she realized that Ace must have seen her eyes glowing!

"Who are you?" Ace said as she began to pull away from her.

"I told you. I'm Rose," Rose said in as friendly a tone as possible

"Your eyes were glowing just like Fenric's! You're Fenric, aren't you?" Ace said angrily.

Rose was taken by surprise at that last question. Her face scrunched up in distaste.

"No, I'm not. I do have a slight connection to that loser, but I'm not him. I once kicked him out of this dimension. I'm no fan of his I assure you, Ace. My eyes were glowing because I have powers from the Vortex. When I use them, then my eyes and my body glow. I was checking you over to see that you were okay, that's all. You're really upset when he isn't around, aren't you?" Rose said with sympathy in her voice.

Ace just nodded as Rose could see her calm down.

"I'm sorry. I'm just jumpy without the Professor around. I keep worrying about him. He's all I've got now. Don't tell him that though. He'd never let me hear the end of it," Ace admitted.

Rose laughed and said, "He won't hear it from me I promise."

The two friends went outside and ran up to the Nemesis. Luckily, the Sontarans hadn't gotten here yet. Rose just had time to grab the bow before they finally arrived.

"You will surrender the statue to us, Doctor!" the Sontaran leader commanded as they got out of the ship.

Rose winced. She was really getting tired of this being confused with the Doctor routine.

"I'm not the Doctor, Mr. Potato Head!" Rose screamed at him in frustration.

"Of course not, Doctor. You drive the Doctor's TARDIS, you use his sonic screwdriver, and you travel around with a companion like he does but you're not the Doctor. I believe you," The Sontaran said with sarcasm.

"I hate a smart aleck Sontaran!" Rose grumbled.

Ace started laughing at her. Rose couldn't help but start laughing herself. It was just so stupid that it was hilarious.

"This is not an occasion for frivolity! Surrender the statue to us now!" the Sontaran leader ordered.

"You want it, you've got it!" Rose said.

She held out the bow and said to Nemesis, "Attack and drive them off. No killing."

Nemesis came to life and floated over to the Sontarans. They began firing on her, but their weapons had no effect. She shrugged their blasts off like they were pinpricks, and then waves of silver energy flowed out of her hands. The Sontarans crumpled to the ground unconscious as the energy hit them. Nemesis continued to knock out the Sontaran soldiers left and right until the entire group of them lay on the ground unmoving.

"Wicked!" Ace said with glee.

"Not exactly what I had in mind, but it'll do," Rose said with a grin.

The UNIT soldiers had now come up to them, and they began putting the Sontarans in restraints and dragging them off. Rose made a mental note to check on what they were doing with them later.

She still had the rest of the Sontarans on the main ship to deal with though. They would send more soldiers to take Nemesis soon. She would have to come up with another way to keep her from them.

She could think of only one way to do that though. She hated to let the Nemesis anywhere near her, but she would have to bring her into the TARDIS.

"Go into the TARDIS," Rose commanded the statue.

"Are you sure that's a good idea?" Ace said worried.

"No, but it's the only way that I can keep anyone else from getting her," Rose said with a shrug.

The Nemesis began to float toward the TARDIS, when suddenly a man appeared behind Rose and smacked her upside the head with a club. The bow dropped from Rose's hand as she fell to the ground unconscious.

Ace immediately tried to grab the bow before the man could get it, and the two of them began to fight over it. She kneed the man in a very sensitive area and ran away from him with the bow.

"Pick Rose up and get inside the TARDIS," Ace commanded the Nemesis.

The statue did as instructed and gingerly picked Rose up. Ace could swear that the statue actually seemed to like Rose. The statue walked into the TARDIS, and Ace followed her. Then, Ace quickly locked the TARDIS doors so the strange man couldn't get in.

"Put her down gently," Ace ordered the statue.

Nemesis sat Rose down carefully, and then stood still and at attention.

Ace didn't know what to do now. So, she decided to check on Rose because that was all that she could do. She was no doctor but she was relieved when Rose seemed to be okay. She had to admit that she had really grown to like her. The glowing eyes had freaked her out for a minute, but she had quickly gotten over it. She didn't want anything to happen to her new friend. She was the only link that she had left to the Doctor.

"You seem to like her," Ace said to Nemesis.

"She was the only one of them that wanted to free me. She argued for it every time that they wanted to use me for a mission. She actually cared about my feelings on the issue. She always asked me if I was okay whenever she saw me. She was nothing like the rest of them at all. She's the closest thing I've ever had to a friend," Nemesis admitted.

"She seems to have that effect on everyone," Ace said with a smile.

"I always thought of you as a friend, too," Rose said as she opened her eyes.

Rose looked at the statue and smiled.

"I'm going to set you free. Maybe that's why the TARDIS brought me here so that I could finally do that for you," Rose said.

Ace handed Rose the bow, and asked, "Who was that man who hit you?"

"I don't know. I didn't see him. I was too busy seeing stars!" Rose admitted.

"It was Mortimus," Nemesis said.

"Wonderful!" Rose said with a sigh.

"Who is he?" Ace asked.

"He used to be one of my classmates back at the Time Lord Academy. He was a real creep! All he ever thought about was coming up with ways to change history that would cause major disruptions to the timestream. He thought that it was funny to plan to change major events in history and not to worry about the consequences. He always favored the underdogs in history too. He would plan how to change certain battles so that the losers would win. We thought that all of these thoughts were just theoretical, but after the Academy we found out otherwise. He used his TARDIS to start bringing about the changes to time that he had thought up at the Academy. The other Time Lords soon put a stop to it though and undid everything that he had messed with. The Doctor told me though that he came across Mortimus back to his old tricks in 1066 as he tried to change the Battle of Hastings to let King Harold win. Mortimus posed as a monk on that occasion, and after that he started calling himself the Monk. The last the Doctor saw him was when he was working with the Daleks to help them build the Time Destructor. Mortimus decided to flee from them when he decided that he wanted out of their partnership but unknown to him the Doctor had messed with the Monk's TARDIS so that he would never be able to tell where it was going. He would become hopelessly lost when he tried to use it," Rose explained.

"That sounds like something the Professor would do," Ace said with a grin.

"It does, doesn't it? He always had a devious side to him, our Doctor," Rose said with a wide smile.

"How long have you known him?" Ace asked.

"We've known each other since we were children. I knew him before we even went to the Academy together," Rose admitted.

"That long, huh?" Ace said as she seemed to be trying to gather the courage to ask something.

Finally, she came to a decision and asked, "What's his real name? Do you know what it is?"

"If anybody does, she does," Nemesis spoke up.

Rose glared at her.

"I can't tell you that I'm afraid," Rose said as her only answer.

Ace shrugged. She figured knowing the Professor that he wouldn't even tell his closest friends so she believed Rose.

Nemesis, however, knew differently but said nothing. She knew that a Time Lord could only tell their true name to someone else when they married them. Rose therefore did know his name and he knew hers. The exchanging of the names was a sacred thing among the Time Lords, and they kept their true names secret from all others for the rest of their lives. Add to that the fact that speaking the true name of a Time Lord out loud could cause terrible things to happen according to legend.

Rose was about to take off and take Nemesis to wherever she wanted to go, when she heard a wheezing groaning sound coming from inside of the TARDIS.

The Monk's TARDIS materialized in the corner of the TARDIS, and Mortimus came out with a staser in his hand. This was a gun that Time Lords used that could kill in one shot and would prevent regeneration.

"Hand me the bow, Doctor!" the Monk said.

"You idiot! I thought surely you'd know who I was! You really are a grade A moron, Mortimus!" Rose said as she rolled her eyes.

"Arkytior?" the Monk said shocked.

"You're brilliant you are. Can't tell me from him, can you? I always thought I was pretty memorable myself," Rose said as she was now very angry at everyone and their brother calling her the Doctor.

When she got back to the Doctor, she was going to give him such a slap! She knew that he wouldn't know why, but at this point she didn't care.

"I thought you were dead," the Monk said.

"I was, but I got better," Rose said with a grin.

"If you want to stay alive, hand me the bow," the Monk ordered.

**Next: What will Rose do? What does the Monk have planned to use Nemesis for anyway?**


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

I do not own Doctor Who and I am making no profit off of this.

"What do you plan on using Nemesis for? Is it so that you use her for more meddling with history? Is she just going to be a toy for you to use for your own amusement?" Rose said with distaste.

"Oh, no! I'm giving her to someone who will do so much more with her than I ever could do to change history. I'm going to enjoy seeing what they do, too. There is a new player entering the cosmic scene, Arkytior. They will soon put the Time Lords in their place, and they will be the new masters of time and space," the Monk told her cryptically.

"Why would you do this? What's in it for you?" Rose asked.

"I will have the complete freedom to change whatever I want whenever I want in time and space. I can play around with timelines and enjoy myself at the resulting chaos with complete immunity," the Monk said with a smirk.

"So your games with time travel are more important than your own people, huh?" Rose said disgusted.

"The knowledge that I gain from seeing how even the smallest changes can affect time are invaluable. Soon I will be the master of temporal physics because my understanding of time will be unparalleled. I will someday be able to know exactly what changes to make to reshape the universe to my desires with minimal effort. I can make the perfect universe, and I will be its architect!" the Monk said with a sly smile.

"Do you think that they would really let you do that once they got in power?" Rose asked him.

"Yes. They seek only a perfect universe, and they know that I can give it to them," the Monk said.

"You're not getting her. There's no way I'm letting you remake the universe in your own sick twisted image," Rose said defiantly.

"That goes double for me, scumbag," Ace added.

"Give it to me now, or I shoot your big mouth friend here," the Monk threatened as he moved his staser toward Ace.

"Don't do it. It doesn't matter what happens to me. You can't let him have Nemesis," Ace said.

Rose came to a decision. It was one that she hoped that she wouldn't regret.

She turned to Nemesis with the bow in her hand as she stealthily moved in front of Ace to block her off from the Monk.

"Nemesis, I set you free! Do as you will from now on. Let no one command you from this moment forward," Rose said.

The Monk looked at her as though she had gone insane.

"No! I can't believe you've finally done it. You have no idea what she will do now. She could kill us all!" the Monk said in a panic.

"Or maybe just you!" Rose said to him with a sly grin.

Nemesis pulled the bow gently from Rose's hand and said to her, "Thank you, my friend!"

Then, the statue turned to the Monk and eyed him angrily.

"You would use me as a pawn in your little games? I say never! No more will I be a slave to another. Let this group that wants me try and take me. I will destroy them all if I have to. No one will enslave me ever again. You can tell them all that when you see them!" Nemesis said.

"I'm not going anywhere. You are coming with me, or I will kill these two," the Monk said stubbornly.

"You will kill no one," Nemesis said.

Twin beams of energy poured forth from her eyes disintegrating the staser in one swift movement.

The Monk was terrified as the statue advanced on him now, and he ran into his TARDIS.

"Ouroboros is coming, Arkytior. They will have the Nemesis, and they will destroy the Time Lords. I will be there at their side when they destroy you too, and I will enjoy every moment of it," he called out just before he shut the door and dematerialized.

"Fun fellow!" Rose said, but she was worried. Yet another reference to Ouroboros. Who or what was Ouroboros? What did they want with her mother? These questions still dogged her.

Ace looked at her funny.

"This Ouroboros thing is bothering you, isn't it?" Ace said observantly.

"Oh, yes. It's something that I hope that I'll find out about sooner or later," Rose said.

Nemesis turned to her and said, "I will not help them. If you need help, however, you only need to ask me; and I will come. I owe you my freedom, Rose!"

Rose smiled. It was the first time that the statue had called her Rose.

"I might just have to do that against this Ouroboros, but I hope not. I'd rather not bother you anymore, my friend. I'll let you enjoy your life instead," Rose said cheerfully.

"Friendship is not a bother. Goodbye, Rose Tyler," Nemesis said as she vanished from inside the TARDIS.

"How did you know that she wouldn't kill us?" Ace asked Rose.

"I didn't, but I trusted her. I knew her from before, and I could tell that killing and destruction always troubled her. It's why I always asked if she were alright. I knew that she wasn't. That it bothered her greatly. I didn't think that such a being would kill so easily," Rose admitted.

Ace smiled. The Professor would have thought like that too.

Rose and Ace returned to 2013 and found that the Sontarans had left once they realized that the Nemesis was no longer there. The ones that had been taken prisoner by UNIT had been given back to them as they agreed to withdraw from Earth.

All of the loose ends had been tied up but one. What had happened to Ace's Doctor?

"Will we ever find him? I know that you know him in the future so he has to be okay, right?" Ace asked Rose worried.

"Time is in a constant state of flux. Things could change. I'm still here though so maybe he is okay, or I would probably not be this version of me at all. I'd probably be working in a shop somewhere," Rose mused distastefully. She had nothing against working in a shop really. It just wasn't for her.

"He really blew up your job?" Ace asked smiling.

"Yep!" Rose replied firmly.

Ace just burst out laughing.

The Brigadier of all people suddenly came up to them and hugged Rose tightly.

"Miss Tyler! I knew it was you! When they told me that a blonde woman had turned up in the TARDIS, I told them that it was you but the idiots kept insisting that you were the Doctor. These recruits nowadays! Not a brain among them. It's not like it was in my day. I mean how daft do you have to be not to be able to tell the Doctor from his wife?" The Brigadier laughed.

Ace's eyes popped out of her head as she looked at Rose in complete shock!

"Hello, Ace! It's good to see you again!" The Brigadier said as he shook a still shocked Ace's hand.

When Ace said nothing, the Brigadier turned to Rose and said, "I take it she didn't know who you are then?"

"No, Alastair. I was trying to keep from telling her too much about the future," Rose said.

The Brigadier knew that he had made a mistake by the tone in her voice.

"Sorry about that. I wasn't thinking about that because I was so happy about seeing you again," he apologized.

"That's okay. It's not that big a deal I suppose. It's just Ace. I think that we can trust her not to tell the Doctor anything he isn't supposed to know, can't we?" Rose said the last part with a meaningful tone in her voice.

Ace had finally come out of her shock and nodded. "I won't tell him anything about you, Rose. I promise. I don't even know if I'm ever going to see him again or not anyway," Ace said unhappily.

"Oh, I'm sorry about that! I forgot that you would be looking for him. He's here with us. He's been helping us in the negotiation with the Sontarans in giving them their prisoners back and allowing them to leave peacefully and with their honor intact without the statue. He did some fancy negotiating there. He first landed here saying something about his TARDIS having developed a malfunction, and it almost flinging him out of the Vortex before he fixed it. He had been worried about you too until Colonel Mace told him that he had seen you with the other Doctor," the Brigadier said.

"He's here!" Ace lit up.

"You didn't tell him about me, did you?" Rose said fearful.

"No but Colonel Mace told him that there was a woman calling herself the Doctor here though. He wasn't too happy about it. He said a few choice words in a language I didn't understand," the Brigadier said laughing.

Rose laughed too. "I bet he was saying some Gallifreyan swear words," she suggested.

She knew that she had to leave soon before he could spot her.

"Well, goodbye Ace. It was nice meeting you. Now that I know that the Doctor is okay, I guess I can leave now. Have a good life! I hope that I'll see you again, my friend," Rose said as she hugged Ace tightly.

"Goodbye, Rose! It was so nice to meet his wife. I'm so glad to know that he's going to have someone in his life that'll make him happy one day! He certainly needs it that's for sure. He gets so lonely sometimes even with me aboard the TARDIS. He denies it but he does. Don't worry. I won't tell him anything about you. Your secret is safe with me!" Ace said as she hugged her back.

Rose said goodbye to the Brigadier and got into the TARDIS. She caught a quick glance of the Doctor before she shut the TARDIS doors and dematerialized. That was close she thought. He couldn't have seen her for too long. It could only have been a second at the most. Hopefully there will be no damage done from it! She thought to herself as she entered the Vortex.

The Doctor walked over to Ace just as Rose's TARDIS dematerialized.

"Who was she?" He asked Ace.

"I don't know. She didn't tell me anything. She said that she couldn't let me know too much about the future," Ace lied.

She hated to do it, but she had promised Rose.

The Doctor looked at her expression with a warm smile. He knew Ace like a book, and he knew when she was lying.

"It's okay, Ace. You don't have to feel bad about lying to me. I know that she has to be someone from my future, and she's told you not to tell me. I do know one thing for sure. She's definitely not a future me. I'd feel it if she were. I always recognize my other selves even if I only see them for a moment," the Doctor reasoned.

He turned to Ace and led her back to their TARDIS. As they got in and left, he couldn't get that blonde woman out of his mind. He had only seen her for a moment, but she was now seared into his brain!

It was centuries later in his own personal timeline and after the Time War, when he spotted her again. He had recognized her when he saw her in Henrik's. She obviously didn't recognize him though. She must not have met him yet. That was a life of time travel for you. You didn't always meet people in the right order.

He pushed her away at first because he didn't like the idea of any part of his life being set in stone and predetermined. He found that he couldn't help himself though. He was strongly attracted to her and that attraction just kept growing the longer he was around her.

So when she turned down his offer of companionship, and he could easily have broken from any kind of predetermined destiny with her; he decided of his own free will to go back to see her and give her a second chance. After all, Ace had obviously liked her a lot. She couldn't be that bad. Ace was a very good judge of character. She liked him after all!

He thanked Ace with a huge charitable contribution to her A Charitable Earth group every year now. If it hadn't been for her, he might have walked away from his Rose; and his life would have been a living nightmare! He owed Ace everything for that. It was a debt that he could never repay. How can you even begin to add a value to your entire future, your entire world?

The Doctor knew that he truly was the luckiest man in the Universe. He laughed when he had found out that they had mistaken her for him, but he knew in a way why they had done it. She was his equal in every way. They were both alike in so many ways that she was like a mirror image of him. She was his one true love and a part of him. She was his soul!

THE END


End file.
